Silver Street was a street in London. It ran from the north end of Noble Street at Falcon Square to Wood Street. It originated in

medieval times In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and t ...

, and is one of the streets shown on a map known as the "

Woodcut map of London The "Woodcut" map of London, formally titled ''Civitas Londinum'', and often referred to as the "Agas" map of London, is one of the earliest true maps (as opposed to panoramic views, such as those of Anton van den Wyngaerde) of the City of Lond ...

" or the "Agas" map, which survives in a 17th-century version. Its inhabitants included the Mountjoy family with whom

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

lodged at the beginning of the 17th century. According to

Charles Nicholl Charles "Boomer" Bowen Nicholl (19 June 1870 – 9 July 1939) was a Welsh international rugby union forward who played club rugby for Cambridge University and Llanelli. Nicholl played for Wales on fifteen occasions during the 1891 and 1896 Hom ...

, who has written a detailed analysis of Shakespeare's life on Silver Street, their house can be identified on the "Woodcut map".Nicholl, Charles (2007). ''The Lodger: Shakespeare on Silver Street''. London.

Allen Lane Sir Allen Lane (born Allen Lane Williams; 21 September 1902 – 7 July 1970) was a British publisher who together with his brothers Richard and John Lane founded Penguin Books in 1935, bringing high-quality paperback fiction and non-fictio ...

. ''The Lodger Shakespeare: His Life on Silver Street''. New York:

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

. The Mountjoys were

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...

s who ran a business making luxury headgear for ladies, including theatrical costumes. Another resident was John Wolfall, who lived there in the 1590s. Ostensibly a skinner, Wolfall´s main activity was arranging loans. During the Second World War the Cripplegate area, where the street was located, was virtually destroyed in the

Blitz Blitz, German for "lightning", may refer to: Military uses *Blitzkrieg, blitz campaign, or blitz, a type of military campaign *The Blitz, the German aerial campaign against Britain in the Second World War *, several ships of the Prussian, Imperia ...

Legacy

A commemorative stone marks the site of St Olave's Church, Silver Street, which was destroyed in the

Great Fire of London The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Wednesday 5 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old London Wall, Roman city wall, while also extendi ...

. On 21 April 2016, the

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

installed a

blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom, and certain other countries and territories, to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving a ...

in Noble Street, near the site of the Mountjoys' house. The plaque reads ''"William Shakespeare had lodgings near here in 1604, at the house of Christopher and Mary Mountjoy"''.

References

Streets in the City of London {{London-road-stub